by Laken Cane
She heard his quick footsteps but was finding it difficult to see. The room was dimming and swaying…or maybe she was swaying. Nausea hit her at the same time dizziness struck.
But none of that was anything. That shit she could have borne. She was saving a life. Lex’s life.
The pain was something more. She could handle pain. She needed pain—she craved it. But not that kind of pain.
It grew bigger with each suck of Lex’s eager mouth. There was nothing she could compare it to. It consumed her, like a fire burning her from the inside out, burning through her flesh.
If she could have, she would’ve taken her wrist from Lex’s mouth. She would have run screaming from the room.
But she couldn’t speak, couldn’t see, couldn’t move.
She screamed. Inside, she screamed.
She dimly heard Ellis’s voice, coaxing and firm, but couldn’t comprehend actual words. Finally, before the pain could either send her into insanity or kill her, Lex released her.
The agonizing pain eased and slipped away, leaving in its wake some sort of internal devastation Rune could only imagine. She could feel it, as though she were a forest and had been hacked and chopped and burned.
Ellie knelt at her side. “Are you okay? Can you stand?”
She realized she was on the floor.
“Rune,” Lex called. “Rune?”
Shit. She grabbed on to Ellis, forcing herself to her feet. “Fuck, Ellie.”
“Sweetie, you don’t look so good,” he murmured.
“Yeah? I bet I look better than I feel.” She leaned against him and nodded at Lex. “But look at her.”
Lex was no longer dying. She still wasn’t completely well, but she was a different person than she’d been just moments earlier. She was vibrating, and her eyes, like antennae, danced for a moment then stopped, gathering and absorbing information.
Ellis dug some gauze and tape out of a cabinet and bandaged her still-bleeding wrist, his movements fast and sure, but as soon as he had taken care of her wounds he threw himself at Lex and lay with his face on her chest, sobbing.
Lex grabbed for Rune’s hand. “I’m sorry.”
“Why?”
“I took too much. But you need to know. There’s so much you need to know.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. I couldn’t grasp it. But it was there, floating by in your blood. I knew it all for a moment.” She cocked her head. “You’re something unimaginable. That’s all I know for sure. And you’re not from here.”
Rune’s legs were shaking. She had to rest and recover. She couldn’t think.
“You’ll be fine now,” she told Lex. Her voice was hoarse and hurt her throat. She needed something to drink. “I have to go home.”
Lex tightened her grip. “Wait. You’re wandering in the darkness. Lost and hurt. I saw you there.”
“I’m right here.” She sent a pleading look at Ellis, who’d lifted himself off Lex and stood mopping at his wet face with his shirt hem. “I’m right here, Lex.”
“Not all of you,” Lex argued. “Not even most of you.”
Ellis gently extracted Rune’s hand from Lex. “Let me take her home, sweetheart.” He leaned over and planted a gentle kiss on Lex’s lips. “I’ll send in your boys.”
“Rune.”
She stopped when Lex called her name and looked over her shoulder at the recovering girl. “Yeah?”
“I…I found the silence. When I drank, I found the silence.”
If she could have cried, Rune’s eyes would have filled at that moment. “I’m glad.”
“Rune!”
Rune wobbled on her feet. “Yes, Lex?”
“I’m healed.”
“I know, baby.”
“No, I mean from the episodes. You fixed me.”
She hoped with everything inside her that Lex was right.
Ellis put his arm around her and helped her from the room. Levi and Denim ran to meet them, their already pale faces draining completely of blood. “Oh God, she’s—”
“She is healed,” Ellis said.
They gaped at Rune, at her wounded face and her bandaged wrist, then with wide eyes full of hope they were afraid to acknowledge, they sprinted away to find their Lexi.
Their jubilant cries followed Rune all the way home.
Part Three
FORTIFY
Chapter Twenty-Three
She slept until dark, when Ellis reluctantly shook her awake. She had seventeen missed calls and eight messages.
Mitch, Denim, Levi, Jack, Raze, Z, and even Jeremy had left voicemails. They’d all called Ellis too, who had explained that she had “taken ill” and was asleep.
Ellis peered into her eyes and felt her forehead. “You saved Lexi’s life, Rune.” He voice was light, his eyes filled with wonder. And maybe a little something more.
“Don’t be getting all freaky on me, Ellie.”
“I’m sorry. But think about what you did. You saved her life.”
She frowned, not at all comfortable with his words. “Monsters can heal with blood. Not a big deal. Think of how fast…” She stopped talking, reluctant to finish her sentence.
“How fast you heal yourself?”
She nodded. “And it’s getting stronger.” She felt herself pale as she had a sudden thought. “I do not want to be fucking immortal.”
He hugged her. “Get over it. Whatever you are, you are. No sense in crying about it. Now let me catch you up.”
She wasn’t feeling terrible, but she recognized the signs of a downward spiral. Tired, emotional…pretty soon the anger would rise up, join the guilt, and start to choke her. And the hunger would begin. Hunger for exactly what she couldn’t have said. Or wouldn’t admit.
And she would call Jeremy.
Jeremy.
No, no. Not this time.
She’d promised Ellis. God, how depressing was that?
She shook off thoughts of Jeremy and listened as Ellie caught her up.
Mitch had sent Raze and Jack to a village complaining of rats. Not your regular garden variety rats but rat shifters. Some humans found shifters—any Others, really—romantic and mysterious. But no one loved the rats.
Raze, Ellis reported, had been bitten trying to get one of them out of a shed full of junk. It was well known that Raze had a rat phobia, and in his terror, masked as rage, he’d taken a shiv to the rat and killed it.
The rats were numerous and used Other rights groups routinely. The dreaded APRO was already involved in the case. “Raze might go to jail,” Ellis finished. “And I have to go home. Will you be okay?”
Rune groaned. “Fucking Raze. He knows how the rats are with the rights groups.”
Ellis checked his watch as he headed toward the door. “And you know how Raze is with the rats. Mitch should have sent Z and Jack, not Raze.”
“He won’t send Raze again, not after APRO kicks his ass. Ellis?”
He stopped. “Yes?”
“Where the hell are you going in such a hurry?”
He answered her question with one of his own. “Don’t you have to visit the wolves?”
She’d told him earlier about Amy’s words. Damn right, she was visiting the wolves. And Sherry. The floater should have told her about the human abusing the females. Why the hell had she held that information back? “Yes.”
“I’m just getting out of your hair.” He looked everywhere but at her. “Gotta go.”
Very interesting. “Ellis.”
He’d almost made it out her door. “Damn it, Rune.”
She grinned. “Do you have a date?”
“Yes, if you must know.”
“You always tell me about your dates. What’s different about this one?”
“Can’t a guy have a secret?” He sounded almost offended. “I’ll call you later. And be careful tonight.” He pointed his finger at her. “Take Z.”
She got dressed and strapped on her weapons, musing over Ellis’s strange evasiveness.
Not her business, maybe, but he always told her about his dates. Told her too much, usually.
After calling to check on an irate, slightly abashed Raze, she called Z. She’d take him with her to meet with the wolf alpha, Marc Beldane, because backup when one paid any of the wolves a surprise visit was always the smart thing to do.
But Z was at the clinic, marveling with the rest of them over Lex’s miraculous recovery. Rune didn’t ask him to accompany her.
“What did she say happened?” she asked Z.
“She has no idea.”
Only the twins would have an inkling, and they’d never tell.
But she had a feeling they were going to nag her and Lex until they got some answers. She wasn’t even sure what she could tell them.
Jack had been sent to a little town on the outskirts of the city and wasn’t available, so she loaded up with extra silver and went to meet Marc Beldane on her own.
Maybe—maybe if she hadn’t been feeling off she would have waited for someone to go with her.
She pulled into a fast-food place to grab a couple of burgers and a large coffee. A familiar hunger gnawed at her insides. She knew from experience that she could eat and eat but that hunger would only grow stronger.
Until one of her encounters took care of it.
She was so fucked.
Hello, old friend.
Feeding Lex had accelerated the process. “Whatever, you fucker. It was worth it.”
Her monster did not answer.
It always surprised her that Beldane chose to live in the center of Spiritgrove instead of finding a quiet, wooded area somewhere in River County the way most of the Others did.
It also surprised her that he was a CPA.
But humans were as strange as the monsters, and some of them liked telling their friends they had a werewolf doing their taxes. He could never doctor them or teach their children or work in the food service industry, but being their accountant was totally cool.
He was more accepted socially by the adults than any of the Others. Maybe because he was so charming and funny and handsome. Or maybe because he’d never even attempted to hide what he was. Whatever the reason, they’d taken him into the community—not all of them but a big chunk—some of them claiming he kept the neighborhood safer than the cops could.
More than likely, none of them had ever seen him shift, though. They hadn’t seen him all furry and bloody. They hadn’t seen him eat someone.
Stuff like that might have cooled their enthusiasm just a little.
She parked on the street in front of his house, listening to the ticking of the cooling engine as she surveyed the place. There were other cars along the street, and she had no idea if Beldane had company.
Not that it mattered. She was talking to him regardless. She climbed out of her car and walked to his house. No neighbors peeked out their windows, but a few houses up the street a dog barked. Sounded like an ankle biter.
The burgers sat uneasily in her stomach. Food never made her sick. The queasiness was a result of her earlier blood loss.
She didn’t bother ringing the doorbell but let loose with her customary hard knocking. Though the street was lined with lights, the porch light came on at her thumps. She was pretty sure Beldane was standing on the other side of the door either trying to get a whiff of her or trying, as Nicolas had done, to figure out what she was.
If they found out, they were more than welcome to clue her in.
Because he was taking too long, she punched the door again. “Beldane. It’s Rune Alexander with SCRU. I want to talk to you.”
He pulled the door open. “I have visitors, Alexander. Call and make an appointment.”
“I don’t need my fucking taxes done. Either let me in or we can have this conversation out here. We have to talk about a man named Preston.”
Everyone she mentioned that name to had a reaction—except Beldane. But really, his obviously contrived lack of reaction was more telling than if he’d fainted dead away.
He spoke over his shoulder. “We can finish this later. I’ll call.” He opened the door wider and his visitor, flushed and frowning, rushed out.
He brushed past her without a word and climbed into a dented Oldsmobile parked on the opposite side of the street.
She knew him. She’d seen him recently but couldn’t remember where. Her senses, stronger than ever after her last encounter with Jeremy, had weakened considerably. She had no idea if the man who’d just left Beldane was a human or a wolf.
She shivered, suddenly cold. Where had she seen him? And why did it suddenly seem so important?
Beldane stepped back and motioned her in, his movements jerky and impatient.
“Who was that?” she asked him.
“He’s no one.”
And just like that she remembered. She’d had that exact exchange of words with Jeremy about that same man. He’d been the Other she’d heard Jeremy yelling at inside his office.
Another link.
Beldane lowered himself into an overstuffed chair and stared at her, the mask he wore to court the humans gone. He didn’t ask her to sit.
She sat anyway. “Nice place.”
“What do you want, Alexander? I don’t have time to entertain nosy hum—” Abruptly he cut himself off, then sniffed the air.
He frowned, tilted his head at her like a curious puppy, and sniffed the air again. He didn’t even try to be subtle about it. His apple-cider colored eyes brightened with interest. “Might I ask, Alexander, just what the fuck you are?”
Why was her monster so easily noticed now when a mere week ago none of the Others would have caught her scent? Her monster was up to something, the bastard. It was like he was leaking out of her pores, and the Others could smell him.
She could have made something up, said she’d been up close and personal with a whole lot of stinky Others that day, but she didn’t.
She gave him a cold stare, realizing that she really, really disliked the wolf. Funny. She would have thought Llodra would have drawn her dislike, not Beldane.
“As I said, I have some questions about a man named Preston. Also, I’ve gotten word that the females of your pack are being abused by a human. First thing I want you to do is give me a simple yes or no to this next question. Is Preston the one abusing the women?”
“I don’t see that—”
She held up a hand. “Yes or no.”
He narrowed his eyes and smiled. “Alexander. You’re the human Cross is fucking, aren’t you?”
Her hand trembled, and she put it down. “Answer my question, Beldane. Or would you rather I take you in and ask my questions there?” She shouldn’t have come. Not until she’d had a chance to recover from Lex’s feeding. She was sick and weak and her mind was cloudy.
Which meant she was no match for the alpha.
He crossed his legs, carefully smoothing a crease in his perfectly pressed trousers. He wore his power like a suit, and she could understand how he handled an entire pack of wolves with total authority.
“You’re not accustomed to those of us who aren’t cowed by you, are you, Alexander?”
She hated the way he said her name, drawing it out, covering it with contempt, and then spitting it into her face. But he was right, the son of a bitch. Most of the Others were at worst obsequious and at best respectful. She’d grown used to that.
Some of them wouldn’t hesitate to sneak up on a human law enforcer in the dark of night and tear her to pieces, but face-to-face they were careful.
It was, after all, a human’s world.
But then, she wasn’t really human, was she?
She slid her hand down to her gun, unsnapping the sheath. He watched her, amused, saying nothing.
“Answer my question,” she said, again.
He ran his hand through his thick hair and slid his tongue over his bottom lip. “No wonder Cross wants you. You’d be a tasty little bitch. So determined, so fearless. It would be…interesting to break you.”
&n
bsp; “I came here tonight to help you and your pack. But you’re making it pretty fucking hard to care.”
“I don’t believe Cross would back you up on this visit.” He smiled. “As a matter of fact—”
His smile disappeared when they both caught the weak sound of a tormented howl. It came from inside the house, no doubt about it, but sounded far away with its faintness. She was certain the house wasn’t all that big. Maybe it had come from the basement.
She slid her gun from its holster. “What’s going on?”
“You need to leave.” He stood quickly, ignoring the gun she’d aimed at his head. “You cannot come into a man’s house uninvited and start harassing him. I will get APRO involved.”
She stood with him, the gun steady in her hand. “And I will relieve you of your head, motherfucker. Sit down.”
He stood for a few tense seconds, undecided, but good sense or maybe the look in her eyes made him cautious. He sat.
It stunned her that he was so antagonistic. He hadn’t even pretended to be friendly or helpful. “You don’t give a damn about your pack, do you?”
He shrugged. “My pack is my business, not yours.”
She wasn’t going to get anything out of him. It’d been a complete waste of time to try. “Have it your way. But I will find out what part you play in all this. I’m guessing it’s a big fucking part.”
She was going to leave. She had it in her head to do so—to just walk out the door. She was already thinking of the next two on her list to visit. First Sherry, then Jeremy.
Gun still firmly in her grip, she turned toward the door.
But the haunting, anguished howl came again, and it changed everything.
Chapter Twenty-Four
She couldn’t help but react to the sound. Something primal within her woke up roaring in answer to the fading wolf screams.
Beldane was in no way stupid or weak. He knew the second cry of the wolf would make it a choice. She could leave, or she could investigate that agonized howl. And he knew which one she’d choose.
He began his shift before the howls had subsided and rammed into her as she swung her gun around. The weapon flew from her grasp, hitting the wall with a quick, solid crack.
